Third-party logistics company A-1 International Inc. doubled its size by expanding into Troy this fall as it seeks to diversify its client base by focusing on retail and Canadian markets.

A-1 moved in September to a 64,000-square-foot facility on Stephenson Highway from a 30,000-square-foot site in Ferndale. The move helped the New Jersey-based company expand its local warehousing capacity and triple the number of truck wells to three, said Ron Mandler, regional sales manager.

The company bills itself as a critical parts expeditor and supply chain manager for clients that include Michigan-based banks, Sun Microsystems Inc. and the Transportation Security Administration. It also contracts with hospitals and clinics to make lab deliveries and run pharmacy routes to nursing homes and residences.

The new space has translated into a 12 percent increase in revenue and expanded ability to service new clients, said Thom MacDonald, director of corporate development.

"It makes us more versatile in order to handle additional business or clients. We are attempting to be as diverse as possible in order to stay solvent," MacDonald said.

The company's focus on delivering on-demand critical parts - such as repair parts for assembly line robotics or computer mainframes - means that A-1 lacks competition in the Detroit market, MacDonald said.

"We're in kind of a specialty field," he said.

The company guarantees one-hour deliveries within 25 miles and ships first flight out for TSA and other customers. It is expanding its one-day ground delivery to service points as far away as Tennessee and Montreal, MacDonald said, as clients seek alternatives to air freight shippers.

Including independent contractor drivers, who provide their own vehicles, the company averages about 50 employees and plans to add more drivers, MacDonald said. Hiring more permanent employees is in the picture if the expansion goes as planned, but MacDonald says the local economy has forced him to look for customers outside Michigan.

Part of that strategy has A-1 targeting business from Canada, where companies that bank imported goods, such as Asian electronics, must pay duties on them.

"We're trying to be an aid to Canadian companies so that the duties are not paid until the time of delivery," MacDonald said.

The company also is also reaching out to retail distribution and will soon begin handling shoe distribution for Kmart Corp., Mandler said.

Michigan, where A-1 opened in 1979, is home to the company's largest logistics solutions depot, according to the company Web site. A-1 also operates logistics, warehouse and office services management facilities in New York City, New Jersey and the Philadelphia area.

Locally, the company started in Southfield, moved to Oak Park and then Ferndale, said Mandler, who has been with the company for 20 years. Its $2.75-per-square-foot triple net Troy lease closed Sept. 1 and includes escalations for seven years, said Joe Banyai of Signature & Associates. The building is owned by Henry Tazia, president and CEO of Controlled Power Co. of Troy.

Mandler and MacDonald say the company focuses on specialty services and avoids relying heavily on automakers or suppliers because of the industry's mercurial nature. And difficult economic times have presented opportunities, Mandler said.

"From my perspective, it's just opened up new opportunities for growth because everybody's looking to save money - and that's where we come in," he said. "If anything, we can benefit from that. Outsourcing used to be a dirty word. Nowadays it's not."